"Uhh... hello?"
Valey knocked with restraint on Crystal's door, waiting to see what would happen. Shinespark and Nyala were a short distance behind, though they wouldn't be coming in. While she waited for an answer, she quickly ran her to-do list through her mind: check to see if she could learn anything suspicious or useful about Chauncey, try to cheer up a mare that reportedly needed it... It didn't really feel like much. Fighting off a strand of awkwardness, she vowed to roll with whatever happened and learn what she could from there.
"The door's not locked," a female voice said from inside.
It was hardly explicit permission, but Valey took it as such, pushing the door open a crack. She could have just shadow snuck under, but...
Crystal's room was dark, with a small lit lamp and a larger unlit one. It actually wasn't dingy and depressing, though, looking freshly swept with a cute little desk and even a bookcase. The walls lacked coverings and had their boards exposed by what looked like a stylish decision, leaving plenty of free crossbeams to act as shelves and places to hang decorations, and decorated they were. Several pictures of the Izvaldi central plaza were tacked around, Percival's mansion in the backgrounds, and plenty more photos showed groups of importantly-dressed dignitaries being greeted in various lobbies.
The room's inhabitant was on her bed, tucked neatly into a corner and generously sized for an individual, the covers kicked to the side. She lay on her back, dull-aquamarine mane and tail splayed, still wearing her maid's outfit and completely expressionless, though she did track Valey with her eyes.
"Uh. Hi. Sorry for barging in like this." Valey shrugged, trying to provoke a question or reaction or anything at all.
Crystal didn't seem to mind, though. She just kept laying there with her legs in the air... Nice legs, Valey decided, even though she was apparently in her mid-thirties. Valey shook her head; that was the absolute last thing she was here for. "You're just fine with me walking into your room? Not even gonna ask why I'm here?"
"Should I?" Crystal kept watching her. "You're welcome to ask me to."
Valey squinted. "I ask you to ask me a question? Huh?"
Crystal didn't react. "I didn't ask you to come here. Whatever your reason is, go ahead and do it."
"Okay, like, hold on..." Valey stepped to the desk, tapping it with a wing. "This is your stuff. Your space. You literally don't care what I do with it?"
"I'm not using it for anything," Crystal replied. "I need the clock and the exercise bands on the wall, but I can get more pictures and the rest doesn't mean anything to me. Did you want to do something with it?"
"Exercise bands? Buh?" Valey glanced around the walls, eventually noticing several rubber straps that looked useful for building core strength and working out legs and wings without actually running or flying around. She glanced back at Crystal... The batpony was certainly well-fed, well-toned, didn't look gaunt and was actually somewhat plump. Maybe she did use those. At least she was taking care of herself. "Nah, actually I came here to talk to you."
Crystal looked away for a second. "Most ponies don't think I'm a very entertaining conversationalist, just so you know. I don't have the kinds of things to say most want to talk about."
Valey smirked; she'd see about that. "Most, huh? How much you wanna bet I can buck that trend?"
"You don't have anything I want to bet with," Crystal said frankly.
"Errr..." Valey frowned. "Seriously? Like, I could change that. Is there anything you do want? 'Cause I'd love a conversation."
Crystal looked upward, staring at a clock that was affixed to the ceiling. "Can you change the passage of time? Move the sun and the moon in the sky?"
"Uh, no?" Valey blinked. "You waiting for something? Like, tonight?"
"I thought you couldn't buck the trend," Crystal said with the tiniest hint of vindication, though her heart clearly wasn't in it. "Yes. I'm waiting, and for a lot longer than tonight. Can you control the houses that rule the Empire, maybe? Sway Garsheeva to your whims? Change destiny?"
Valey narrowed her eyes. "Okay, someone said you were sad but this is honestly kinda weird. I feel like I'm being read an introduction that was rehearsed to try to sound dramatic and cool."
"You are," Crystal admitted. "But it's just because I had nothing better to do."
Valey's jaw hung loose, and it took her several seconds to figure out what to do. "Uhhh... well, I seriously doubt I can do any of those things, but I can totally hang out with you while you wait? You still haven't proved I'm not interested in what you have to say."
Crystal almost shrugged. She twitched the right muscles, at least. It was the first hint of movement aside from her eyes Valey had seen. "What do I get out of convincing you that? I already told you you have nothing I want."
Valey gritted her teeth in frustration, taking a minute to reorient herself before speaking. "So you don't even want waiting for whatever you're waiting for to be less of a chore? If you, like, don't care, can I ask you some questions, at least? I'd love to be nice to you, and all, but I am here for some other stuff."
"See?" Crystal asked. "I told you you weren't here because of me."
Valey's eyebrow twitched. "Okay, first off, I didn't say that, second, this is weirding me out. You're being all vaguely depressing, and, like... why?" She tilted her head. "You recognize this isn't normal, right? Any reason you're being this way?"
"I do," Crystal said. "I told you that, too. Normal ponies and I don't get along. And it's just because I have nothing better to do."
"You have nothing better to do than lay in that bed and stare at the ceiling, talking me in circles." Valey sighed. "It doesn't really look like that stuff makes you happy, you know."
"I never said it made me happy." Crystal rolled over, making a dexterous display of getting her hooves beneath her and climbing out of bed. "You're right, though. I could be exercising instead, and I suppose that would be better. I'm not tired. I should do that."
Valey watched as she crossed the room, still in the form-fitting maid's outfit, and put her back against the wall, hooking loops around all four of her legs and starting to stretch them in and out mechanically, moving without a purpose in the world.
"Uhhh..." Valey watched her move for several minutes, aware that the tips of her wings were starting to quiver. "You know, I probably should tell you this before you get too... uh... sweaty," she began, "but I like mares and you're pretty hot and I'm almost wondering if you're doing this on purpose to make me feel awkward, because you're obviously in no state to be in a relationship right now and that's seriously not what I'm here for."
Crystal kept stretching her legs against the bands. "If you're looking for a confessional," she countered, "I don't care enough to do anything about whatever you tell me. If you're simple enough to get solace from a thing like that, go for it."
Valey flicked her ears in confusion. "Hold on, what? No, seriously, I'm... I'm trying to be polite, here! Which is seriously not my usual thing! I'm letting you know you're turning me on!"
"Why? It doesn't matter to me," Crystal huffed, breathing starting to get heavier as she continued. "Be polite. Be not polite. Be turned on." She pushed at the rubber bands again. "You haven't wanted to tell me why you're here, and I haven't wanted to... to ask."
"Okay, I'm not buying it." Valey stepped so she could look at her more directly. "Ever looked in a mirror? Seen your own eyes? You do care about something. Maybe not a lot, but whatever I just said hit something, didn't it?" She raised an eyebrow. "You got a little frustrated there. I heard it. So either tell me to leave your room, or, like... do something. Talk to me. Please?"
Crystal just continued pushing faster on the exercise bands, starting to work up a sweat.
Valey leaned in to stare. "Or else I'll keep trying to bother you. You look like you're in kinda a fragile state, and usually I'd just bail and let you work out your problems, but something tells me a shakeup is what you need. So what was it that got your goat? Me going out of my way to change my demeanor for you? Or me getting turned on?"
Crystal frowned, and looked away.
"Tell me to leave, and I will," Valey insisted, some polite new part of her not letting her eyes wander as freely as she wanted to make a point of them doing. "Come on, stick up for yourself!"
"Or?" Crystal stopped, sitting there. "You clearly have something you want, and think something is wrong with me. You can't threaten me; I don't care. Will you threaten me with help?"
"Uhh..." Valey took a step back, bracing herself for an explosion she had plainly requested.
Crystal started moving her wings, undoing the now-wet maid uniform. "It's been done before, you know. You're not the first to think of it. 'Oh, she looks so unusual, I think I'll devote my heart and life to making her feel more like me!' How long do you think such life-devotion sentiments last?"
"Uhhhhhh..." Valey's brain stalled harder, made worse by Crystal's blatantly provocative undressing. "You're really hot and making it hard for me to focus?"
"You've been in here for seventeen minutes," Crystal told her. "That's longer than some, but a lot shorter than a lifetime. Go ahead. Say what everyone inevitably says. Or are you different?"
Valey blinked, Crystal sitting against the wall, coat wet, with the maid outfit halfway off, her own wings fully out to the sides. "Kinda making it hard for me to think about more than one thing, here..."
Crystal sighed, pulling away the rest of the outfit and leaving a hoof on her belly. "Pity and lust aren't love, and no one seems to understand that. Ever. It's always altruistic idiots like you who don't understand the flow of time. Go ask Meyneth to smack you with a newspaper. It's what she usually does to people who think they can do everything in an instant."
"Wait a minute." Valey frowned, not paying attention to Crystal's lecture and focusing on where her hoof was instead. "I thought you were just really well-fed, or something, but with that coat off... are you pregnant?"
Crystal met her gaze, eyes the same shade of emerald as Valey's. "Good guess, and yes, I am. If you're still thinking steamy thoughts, go ahead and think them, but you can't have me. I'm smarter than that, now."
"Bananas," Valey said, again completely ignoring the hostility. "You're another White Chocolate."
"Huh?" Now it was Crystal's turn to look confused.
"Someone a friend of mine ran into ages ago," Valey explained. "Super edgy, depressing mom-to-be. Pretty sure dealing with her kind of emotionally ran her over the rails, too..." She ran a hoof through her mane. "You know what? Ironflanks is trying to be on vacation and actually happy for a change, and really doesn't need another one of you to deal with. It's a pity, too, because as special as you might think your problems are, other ponies actually have them too, and she let people help her. I'm outta here. If you want a friend or a sympathetic ear, you'll have to settle for me." She blinked. "Or any one of the other dozens of maids here. Take care of yourself, and all that."
And then Valey left, leaving Crystal with nothing planned out to say.